Netanyahu Tells Colorado: Israel Understands Terror

Netanyahu sent condolences to Colorado’s “Batman” terror victims, “We well understand the pain and loss that you are experiencing.”

By Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu

First Publish: 7/22/2012, 9:41 AM

Elizabeth Sumrall, 23, is embraced in front of a memorial for victims moviegoers in Aurora

Reuters

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu sent condolences to Colorado’s “Batman” terror victims, “We well understand the pain and loss that you are experiencing," he said.

"I send my condolences and those of the Israeli people to the families of the Americans who were murdered in Aurora, Colorado, and my wishes for a full and rapid recovery to those who were wounded,” he said in his message.

President Barack Obama is traveling to Colorado Sunday under tight security to meet with families bereaved in the shooting rampage that left at least 12 dead and 58 wounded at the Denver suburb movie theater’s premier “Batman” movie viewing.

Police have arrested James Holmes for the savage murders. Until last month, he was studying for a doctoral degree in neuroscience at a nearby university. A top student, he had earned a prestigious federal grant from the National Institutes for Health to support his studies. The grants are intended for "outstanding neuroscientists and academicians who will make significant contributions to neurobiology," university spokeswoman Jacque Montgomery told Reuters.

On Saturday, local and federal authorities disarmed his booby-trapped apartment.

Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates said, "We've become aware that the suspect over the last four months received a high volume of deliveries to both his work and home addresses. This begins to explain how he got his hands on all the magazines and ammunition.”

Sources familiar with the probe said that some 30 shells filled with gunpowder were found in his apartment, together with containers filled with "incendiary liquids" intended to fuel a fire from the initial explosions, as well as bullets meant to ricochet around the apartment.

Holmes, 24, was arrested minutes later in a parking lot behind the cinema. He was armed with an AR-15 assault rifle, a 12-gauge shotgun and a Glock .40-caliber handgun. Police found an additional Glock .40-caliber handgun in his car. All the weapons were legally bought in the past 60 days.

Among his victims were a 6-year-old girl who had just learned to swim, a young man celebrating his 27th birthday and an aspiring sportscaster who had missed by minutes being on the scene of a Toronto mall shooting earlier this summer.

Holmes said he had dyed his hair red and called himself "the Joker" in a reference to Batman's comic-book nemesis.